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Governor Rick Scott is evaluating whether to proceed with construction of the proposed Tampa to Orlando high-speed rail project. The potential cost to Florida taxpayers is a principal factor in this evaluation. Capital cost escalation, revenue shortfalls and higher than projected operating costs are common in high-speed rail projects. Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Governor-elect John Kasich of Ohio have cancelled projects funded by the Obama administration’s high-speed rail program and foregone the federal funding because of cost concerns such as these.
Archive for the ‘Tax’ Category
The Tampa to Orlando High-Speed Rail Project: Florida Taxpayer Risk Assessment
Friday, January 14th, 2011Skepticism About High-Speed Rail Is Growing
Thursday, January 13th, 2011“Spend first, answer questions later.” So concludes a critical editorial in the January 12 edition of the Washington Post, commenting on California’s proposed $43 billion High-Speed Rail program. The Post editorial, along with a January 11 article in the New York Times (both of which we reprint below), are emblematic of the increasingly skeptical press and public opinion concerning the fiscal and economic soundness of the Obama Administration’s high-speed rail initiative.
View this complete post...Do Roads Pay for Themselves? Setting the Record Straight on Transportation Funding
Tuesday, January 4th, 2011U.S. PIRG
Highways do not—and, except for brief periods in our nation’s history—never have paid for themselves through the taxes that highway advocates label “user fees.” Yet highway advocates continue to suggest they do in an attempt to secure preferential access to scarce public resources and to shape how those resources are spent.
The Outlook for the Federal Transportation Program in the Next Congress
Monday, December 20th, 2010Innovation NewsBriefs Vol. 21, No. 32 Remarks by Kenneth Orski, Editor-Publisher of Innovation NewsBriefs before the Transportation Leaders session at the National Conference of State Legislatures, Phoenix, AZ, December 9, 2010 Broadly speaking, we can expect the changing balance of power in the next Congress to manifest itself in two ways: a strong push to […]
View this complete post...A Fresh Look at the Prospects for Transportation in the New Congress
Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010Last month we conducted an informal survey among colleagues in the transportation community about the outlook for the federal surface transportation program in the year(s) ahead…One comment from a veteran transportation insider summed up concisely the collective mindset: “There will be nothing ‘transformational’ about the future program,” he opined.
View this complete post...Investments for a Competitive and Healthy Minnesota: A Playbook for Minnesota’s New Governor
Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010About 1000 Friends of Minnesota
Minnesota needs a transportation system that is safer, enhances and preserves communities, and saves families and businesses money through greater reliance on public transit, bicycling, and walking, and better maintenance of the infrastructure we already have. Transportation is about much more than getting from A to B. It is not an end, but it should be a means for a community to achieve broader goals of economic development, neighborhood revitalization, and environmental sustainability.
Gridlock Sam: The Tea Party’s Bridge to Beyond Nowhere
Wednesday, October 27th, 2010BLUEPRINT AMERICA
It’s so easy to get on the bandwagon: lower my taxes, smaller and more efficient government, don’t touch my liberties, throw the bums out, etc. But what if that bandwagon has to cross a bridge? And what if that bridge hasn’t been maintained in years?
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